Today, May 21, marks the release of EA and Velan Studios’ Knockout City, a multi-player game that takes the well-known game of dodgeball and turns it into something new. “This ain’t dodgeball, it’s dodgebrawl.” EA certainly has big plans for the launch of Knockout City including a Block Party which will run for 9 days and allow everyone to download and play completely for free with no paywall. There are also planned events full of familiar faces like Brie Larson, BrookeAB, and Sykkuno, as they team up to take down the competition. Here is the official 9-day Block Party schedule:
- May 21: Block Party goes live at 5am PT / 8am ET / 12pm UTC
- May 22: Community Crew Up gets underway as streamers invite their communities to help them reach in-game goals to unlock prizes for their audience. Watch Brie Larson, BrookeAB, and Sykkuno form a team to play 3v3 live on Brie’s YouTube channel!
- May 23: Start rocking custom Crew Logos, Crew Banners, and Player Icons from a few different content creators
- May 24: Join the Knockout City Discord to play rounds of Knockout City with the dev team, chat about the game and hang out
- May 25: Season 1 Kickoff: Welcome to Knockout City drops with a new map called Jukebox Junction, a weekly rollout of eight new Playlists, League Play, Season Contracts, Weekly Crew Contracts and more
- May 26: Round 1 of Dodge the Devs, where players can take a whack at knocking out devs in-game for special prizes
- May 27: Round 2 of Dodge the Devs!
- May 28: Community Tournament Day 1, where 64 teams in North America and 64 in Europe will compete for a chance to be crowned the victor.
- May 29: Community Tournament Day 2, where the top 8 teams in both regions from Day 1 continue to compete for a $10k North American and $5k European prize pool
- May 30: Block Party ends at 5am PT / 8am ET / 12pm UTC
Knockout City definitely steps it up from traditional dodgeball with four game modes, five maps, and six ball types, each adding its own challenges and exciting features to keep the game interesting. As Karthik Bala, CEO of Velan Studios said, “Knockout City is unlike anything players have experienced from a team-based multiplayer game; the action-packed gameplay provides dodgebrawlers the opportunity to show off their moves and work with their Crew to master shots in their own style.”
The game features several game types, starting with a base Team KO mode where you play 3v3 matches as you throw balls, or become a ball for your teammates to throw, and KO the members of the other team. Ten KOs to win a round and the match goes to the best of three. Once you reach Street Rank 5 you’ll also unlock three more game modes; Diamond Dash, Party Team KO, and Face-Off. With the variety of game modes, maps, ball types, and other features like character customization, there is plenty to keep you entertained while running around brawling with balls, and with each season there will be new content to keep players coming back for more. The first season starts on May 25, four days after launch.
While the game is currently free-to-play if you purchase it during the 9-day Block Party for $19.99 you will receive some bonus content featuring an epic outfit, hairstyle, glasses, glider, intro pose, KO effect, player icons, and 500 Holobux, the in-game currency which is also purchasable using real money. The game will be available to members of EA Play and subsequently, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Xbox Game Pass for PC due to their integration this past November. If you’re the kind of player who likes as many bonuses as possible, you can also purchase the Deluxe Edition for $29.99 or for $9.99 if you have EA Play or Xbox Game Pass. This will grant you all the bonuses listed above as well as an additional outfit, a Crew vehicle, three Crew logos, three Crew banners, and 1,000 more Holobux. The game is out now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC via the EA desktop app beta and Origin, Steam, Epic Games Store, and playable on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S through backwards compatibility.
